Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

When NAMA was introduced, the Government claimed it would make a profit. Why? NAMA and the Government believe property prices will return to their peak in ten years. The Minister of State is telling those who own 30,000 unsold properties that he will rent them while putting taxpayers' money into their pockets. Then after bailing them out, ten years later they can have their properties back. There is a report from NAMA and expert consultants that shows property prices will reach a new level in ten years. The Minister of State is telling his developer friends from the Galway races tent that they can sell their properties after ten years after getting rent from the local authority. Meanwhile, what will happen to the Marys and the Johns who are social housing tenants in these properties? In ten years' time they will be turfed out on the road while the modifications they made to the property will be worthless. They will not even have the option of buying the property off the local authority.

The Minister of State can call my arguments rubbish all he wants. The leasing initiative is nothing but a dressed-up bailout for developers. Everyone, even those with an economics education, knows that in the long term it is cheaper to buy one's house than it is to rent. The Minister of State, however, now directs the local authorities to rent. This is throwing money after money which goes straight to the speculators and property developers who got us into this mess in the first place. That is not rubbish.